What Is A Fitness Tracker?

A fitness tracker is a device or application that monitors or tracks fitness-related metrics, such as number of calories burned, heart rate, distance walked or run, and quality of sleep.

These modern fitness trackers are electronic devices you wear on your wrist to track your steps, overall physical activity, sleep and sedentary behavior.

But there are things you still need to know about fitness trackers other than their usefulness.

Here Are 5 Things You Need To Know About Fitness Trackers

They Work In Short Term:

People have been using basic pedometers (mechanical step counters) for many years and they help to increase their activity level.

Modern fitness trackers are essentially fancy pedometers, so there is little reason to believe their added features and functionality makes them less effective.

Of the few rigorous randomized controlled trials of advanced fitness trackers, most found positive short-term outcomes.

For example, a study was conducted to compare people using pedometers to those using Fitbits, and it was found that those that use Fitbits were 62 minutes more physically active a week.

In other studies, it was discovered that fitness tracker users took remarkably more steps than those in a control group, but only measured outcomes over a short period.

For Long-Term Outcomes, Fitness Trackers Work Best With Other Strategies:

Excessively, few studies have been conducted on how people use fitness trackers more than three months to know if they work for the long term.

Various reports propose many people soon quit using them.

The need to repeatedly and sync the device with an app or website are some of the reasons.

More importantly, fitness trackers should be part of an overall behavior change strategy that will promote a lifelong fitness habit.

Basic Fitness Tracker Functions Are Accurate:

Many reviews have shown most fitness trackers provide genuine and reliable measures of physical activity, such as counting steps and minutes of activity.

Step counting is considered as the most important function of fitness trackers by most users, but these reviews also show calorie counts, energy expenditure, and sleep measures are less accurate.

Recreational users don’t see this as a big problem because the measurement error tends to be consistent.

This means despite everything, you can precisely evaluate whether you are making progress as the device always over or underestimates the same way.

Fitness Trackers Affect Your Mood:

Some fitness tracker users report feeling naked or guilty when they are not wearing their fitness tracker, and others have suggested it might damage their relationship with their doctors.

But many studies have demonstrated the strong positive effects of regular physical activity on mental health including quality of life, improved mood, anxiety, stress, and depression.

Even though there is no direct evidence, probably the positive mental effects of being active outweigh the potential negative mental health effects of wearing fitness trackers.

Fitness Trackers Motivate To Do Better:

Many could say that fitness trackers are a complete waste of money, but I beg the differ!

If you could push yourself and set goals on your fitness tracker to get up every 30 minutes or so and get some steps in, you could lose more calories rather than sitting down with no reminder telling you to get up and move.

You could also set up daily step counts with your fitness tracker that allows you to try and beat personal step goals from previous days.

With that, it forces you to exercise and lose more calories, leading to a healthier lifestyle!

What I Recommend

If you have some spare money on the side and you are looking to living a more active and healthier lifestyle, invest in a fitness tracker.